Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Traditional power grids, where energy is distributed from one or more sources (electricity generators) to numerous destinations (consumers of electricity), are increasingly being replaced or modified to include new forms of power generation. One of the new sources of power for power grids includes power generated by the consumers of electricity (e.g., through solar or wind power conversion) that can be provided to the grid when the consumers have a power surplus. For example, smart meters may be used at households with power generating capability and provide surplus power back to the grid for a pre-arranged price or credit toward consumed power.
Rising power consumption and generation may provoke frequent power congestion in the electric power system, however. Congestion-prone locations may often be discovered in urban regions, where peak-loads may occur because of insufficient transmission lines, transfer capability, and/or transmission capacity. The increasing deployment of distributed power resources close to end-use sectors may incur local congestion and deterioration in the distribution grid as well (e.g., electric equipment damages and power outages), when power control and management is not properly engineered.